3bolt79
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Well, where do I start? I have been a Night Ranger fan since their first album came out. I was also a fan of Brad Gillis since his stint with Ozzy and the Speak of the Devil album. I always liked the versions of the Sabbath songs on Speak of the Devil better than the Black Sabbath originals.
I first saw Night Ranger live in 1985 on their 7 Wishes tour. Brad’s playing, along with Jeff Watson’s playing seemed to complement each other perfectly. The dual harmonized leads in Eddie’s Coming Out Tonight and Don’t Tell Me You Love Me are two perfect examples.
When I saw them in 1985, in Eugene Oregon at the Hult Center, I managed to get a front row seat right in front of Brad. I noticed something interesting about his red, modified Strat. At the start of of the song Eddie’s Coming Out Tonight, he did a huge pull up from his open A up to a D. The bridge was resting on top of the guitar when he got to D. This will be important later.
I was 16 when I saw NR for the first time. A couple of years later, I graduated from high school and moved out of my parent’s house. That was 1987. I worked low end maintenance jobs for a year or so and then went in the Air Force. I decided that I wanted to do something in the medical field. I wound up working in a labor and delivery unit at Castle Air Force Base in Merced, California.
When I got out I started going to school again for Nursing and Resporatory Therapy. By 1993, I had met my son’s mother. After my son was born, we split up. We were only married for 2 years.
While I was finishing school, my son’s bio mom met a guy named Jim. He was a former pro ball player for the Boston Red Sox. He retired after breaking his neck during a game. He is also the brother of Kelly Keaggy of Night Ranger. Kelly has been my son’s Uncle since he was a kid. Which is cool because I get band stuff (Autographs/Merch) from time to time and my son goes to their shows from time to time and has taken me with him.
We got to hang out with the band after a show a few years ago. The people that signed up for the Meet and Greet absolutely mobbed them for an hour. We all took pictures with them. Then most of the folks left and a few of us (it was mostly family and friends of the band) got to stay afterward.
I was talking with Brad after the show about his gear. During that show, and any other show that you or anyone else is going to see him at, he won’t be playing his custom modded 62 Strat. He is playing the next best thing though, his Fernandes Brad Gillis signature guitar from the 80’s.
I couldn’t believe that he let me touch his guitar during our time together. The Fernandes version of his red 62 Strat had, from the factory, a lesser Floyd Rose knock off. I noticed a few other things about the guitar that he was playing that night.
The MIJ BG model didn’t actually have the pickups that he uses from the factory. He had a rail (SD I believe) pickup in the neck position, and an unknown to me middle single coil, but the bridge pickup looked strange. It was semi opaque black, and you could see two large rail magnets through the top of the pickup.
I asked him, “Brad, what’s up with your bridge pickup?”
He said, “Oh that just on of my old PJ Marx signature pickups. I just ground the epoxy down on the top of the pickup.” He stated that he felt the signal was better that way. As the pickup was totally encased in a block of epoxy, it did allow to move the magnets closer to the strings.
I told him that when those Fernandes guitars came out, I wanted one. But I was in high school at the time and I couldn’t afford it. They didn’t make them for very long either. I also told him that every time one comes up for auction, they always seem to slip through my fingers. He said”, “Good luck finding one. Every time one comes up for sale, I buy it.”
Brad said, “I don’t take the 62 out on the road anymore. I fly from city to city with my guitar in a gig bag as a carry on and store it in the cabin, in one of the compartments.”
Back to the subject of his Floyd Rose bridge. I said “Brad, when I was in high school, I tried to mod out my Strat to be as close as possible to yours. I had is painted red, put an 84 German Schaller made Floyd with the fine tuners and the bar that you needed the wrench to remove. I set it up to pull up a fourth, from open A to D when it came to rest on the top of the guitar.”
Brad said, “That’s how I have mine set up.”
I said to him, “I discovered that if you lower the string retention bar low enough to have the strings fully contact the top of the nut down to where the strings exit toward the pegs, then when you clamp it the stings won’t go sharp.” He said, “Yeah a lot of guys don’t get that.”
He also said,” The bridges that I have on my guitar are from when Floyd was still making them in his garage. I got the third one, Neal Schon got the second.”
Here’s a pic of an original Floyd Rose without fine tuners….
As the night wore on, I said to Brad, “I noticed your back line was all Marshall’s.”
Brad said, “Yeah we rented our back line for tonight’s show.”
I told him I was expecting to see Mesa/Boogie’s, as he was a long time endorser.
Brad then said that Mesa/Boogies have a quirk. He said that when you switch between channels with the footswitch , you can hear an audible “pop” through the speakers. This seems to be true of the Mark series amps. My son;s F30 doesn’t do that.
I had noticed that myself on my Mesa/Boogie Mark V 25. I had even taken my amp to the local Mesa/Boogie warranty repair station. The tech went through my amp and tested everything. He said there was nothing wrong with my amp, it was just the caps charging. I had got so pissed off at my amp when I was changing channels and heard the “pop” one time that I stomped on the button a few more times out of anger. Each time I hit the button…..Pop…..pop. Each time I did it, it popped, but the volume of the pop would be less. After stepping on it about five times, the noise had stopped.
Brad said, “Don’t use something just because it was given to you.”
I have also discovered that if you let your amp warm up for 15 minutes or so, the popping doesn’t happen when using the switch. Brad says that he really likes Soldano amps. However, the last video I saw from the band, there were Mesa/Boogies in the back line. When I saw them in ‘85, he actually was using three Mark II Colesium heads with two 4x12 cabs for each. They weren’t just play front of the house. Everytime he hit a low chord the rush of the air moved the hair on my head. I couldn’t hear out of my right ear for three days after that show in 1985.
When Night Ranger played the show at the casino, Brad Gillis came out and dedicated the song Goodbye to a friend of his who had just passed. Also, not long before the show that night, my wife had lost her father. She had never heard the song before that night. It was kind of weird, but they did the first half of the song acoustically, then Kelly came in on the drums and “Bam”. Electric outro solo like on the album. My wife was really moved.
Brad and she talked about the song, and her having just lost her father, and he his friend. My wife cried, and Mr. Gillis was so sweet to her. He leaned in and kissed her on the cheek. A total class act. Genuine and human. He’s the nicest celebrity I’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting.
Brad is really into collecting vintage guitars. He says he has over 120. I was telling him about a friend who passed that had a 1960 Les Paul. He wanted to hear more about it as his wife was trying to sell it. They owned a music store. Unfortunately, by the time I returned home to inquire about Brad wanting to buy it, she had already sold it. Brad did give me his phone number, so I could alert him if any other vintage guitars were for sale in the area. I’ve called him a couple of times to give him a heads up. However the last time I tried to call him about a near mint, customer color Fender Jaguar from the 1960’s, his number had changed. Now if I come across something, I put it in my son’s ear, to put it in Kelly’s.
Kelly’s a great guy too. I had a rare 7 wishes tab book from 1985, and my son gave it to Kelly to get the autographs of all the original members, including Flitz and Jeff, on it. Well, Kelly had the book for a long time. I figured it probably got lost. Then a year later, when my son was on leave from the Army, he shows up and hands me the book, with all five signatures.
It’s hard watching your heroes get old. Fitz is in his 80’s, Kelly is in his 70’s now, and Brad is creeping up to 70 soon. Brad and the boys are still touring. My son just saw them about three weeks ago. I know that Jack doesn’t need to tour. He has all that Damn Yankees dough. Their “last tour” supposedly ended last year, but there are shows scheduled for 2025. Maybe they just extended it a bit.
Brad gave a solid chunk of advice to share with all you musician types….”Keep your publishing.”
And here now for your viewing pleasure is the video of Night Ranger’s Seven Wishes Tour, from 1985.
If you have any questions about anything about my night hanging out with NR, go ahead and ask. There is a lot I haven’t covered. I will try to answer in the comments down below.
I first saw Night Ranger live in 1985 on their 7 Wishes tour. Brad’s playing, along with Jeff Watson’s playing seemed to complement each other perfectly. The dual harmonized leads in Eddie’s Coming Out Tonight and Don’t Tell Me You Love Me are two perfect examples.
When I saw them in 1985, in Eugene Oregon at the Hult Center, I managed to get a front row seat right in front of Brad. I noticed something interesting about his red, modified Strat. At the start of of the song Eddie’s Coming Out Tonight, he did a huge pull up from his open A up to a D. The bridge was resting on top of the guitar when he got to D. This will be important later.
I was 16 when I saw NR for the first time. A couple of years later, I graduated from high school and moved out of my parent’s house. That was 1987. I worked low end maintenance jobs for a year or so and then went in the Air Force. I decided that I wanted to do something in the medical field. I wound up working in a labor and delivery unit at Castle Air Force Base in Merced, California.
When I got out I started going to school again for Nursing and Resporatory Therapy. By 1993, I had met my son’s mother. After my son was born, we split up. We were only married for 2 years.
While I was finishing school, my son’s bio mom met a guy named Jim. He was a former pro ball player for the Boston Red Sox. He retired after breaking his neck during a game. He is also the brother of Kelly Keaggy of Night Ranger. Kelly has been my son’s Uncle since he was a kid. Which is cool because I get band stuff (Autographs/Merch) from time to time and my son goes to their shows from time to time and has taken me with him.
We got to hang out with the band after a show a few years ago. The people that signed up for the Meet and Greet absolutely mobbed them for an hour. We all took pictures with them. Then most of the folks left and a few of us (it was mostly family and friends of the band) got to stay afterward.
I was talking with Brad after the show about his gear. During that show, and any other show that you or anyone else is going to see him at, he won’t be playing his custom modded 62 Strat. He is playing the next best thing though, his Fernandes Brad Gillis signature guitar from the 80’s.
I couldn’t believe that he let me touch his guitar during our time together. The Fernandes version of his red 62 Strat had, from the factory, a lesser Floyd Rose knock off. I noticed a few other things about the guitar that he was playing that night.
The MIJ BG model didn’t actually have the pickups that he uses from the factory. He had a rail (SD I believe) pickup in the neck position, and an unknown to me middle single coil, but the bridge pickup looked strange. It was semi opaque black, and you could see two large rail magnets through the top of the pickup.
I asked him, “Brad, what’s up with your bridge pickup?”
He said, “Oh that just on of my old PJ Marx signature pickups. I just ground the epoxy down on the top of the pickup.” He stated that he felt the signal was better that way. As the pickup was totally encased in a block of epoxy, it did allow to move the magnets closer to the strings.
I told him that when those Fernandes guitars came out, I wanted one. But I was in high school at the time and I couldn’t afford it. They didn’t make them for very long either. I also told him that every time one comes up for auction, they always seem to slip through my fingers. He said”, “Good luck finding one. Every time one comes up for sale, I buy it.”
Brad said, “I don’t take the 62 out on the road anymore. I fly from city to city with my guitar in a gig bag as a carry on and store it in the cabin, in one of the compartments.”
Back to the subject of his Floyd Rose bridge. I said “Brad, when I was in high school, I tried to mod out my Strat to be as close as possible to yours. I had is painted red, put an 84 German Schaller made Floyd with the fine tuners and the bar that you needed the wrench to remove. I set it up to pull up a fourth, from open A to D when it came to rest on the top of the guitar.”
Brad said, “That’s how I have mine set up.”
I said to him, “I discovered that if you lower the string retention bar low enough to have the strings fully contact the top of the nut down to where the strings exit toward the pegs, then when you clamp it the stings won’t go sharp.” He said, “Yeah a lot of guys don’t get that.”
He also said,” The bridges that I have on my guitar are from when Floyd was still making them in his garage. I got the third one, Neal Schon got the second.”
Here’s a pic of an original Floyd Rose without fine tuners….
As the night wore on, I said to Brad, “I noticed your back line was all Marshall’s.”
Brad said, “Yeah we rented our back line for tonight’s show.”
I told him I was expecting to see Mesa/Boogie’s, as he was a long time endorser.
Brad then said that Mesa/Boogies have a quirk. He said that when you switch between channels with the footswitch , you can hear an audible “pop” through the speakers. This seems to be true of the Mark series amps. My son;s F30 doesn’t do that.
I had noticed that myself on my Mesa/Boogie Mark V 25. I had even taken my amp to the local Mesa/Boogie warranty repair station. The tech went through my amp and tested everything. He said there was nothing wrong with my amp, it was just the caps charging. I had got so pissed off at my amp when I was changing channels and heard the “pop” one time that I stomped on the button a few more times out of anger. Each time I hit the button…..Pop…..pop. Each time I did it, it popped, but the volume of the pop would be less. After stepping on it about five times, the noise had stopped.
Brad said, “Don’t use something just because it was given to you.”
I have also discovered that if you let your amp warm up for 15 minutes or so, the popping doesn’t happen when using the switch. Brad says that he really likes Soldano amps. However, the last video I saw from the band, there were Mesa/Boogies in the back line. When I saw them in ‘85, he actually was using three Mark II Colesium heads with two 4x12 cabs for each. They weren’t just play front of the house. Everytime he hit a low chord the rush of the air moved the hair on my head. I couldn’t hear out of my right ear for three days after that show in 1985.
When Night Ranger played the show at the casino, Brad Gillis came out and dedicated the song Goodbye to a friend of his who had just passed. Also, not long before the show that night, my wife had lost her father. She had never heard the song before that night. It was kind of weird, but they did the first half of the song acoustically, then Kelly came in on the drums and “Bam”. Electric outro solo like on the album. My wife was really moved.
Brad and she talked about the song, and her having just lost her father, and he his friend. My wife cried, and Mr. Gillis was so sweet to her. He leaned in and kissed her on the cheek. A total class act. Genuine and human. He’s the nicest celebrity I’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting.
Brad is really into collecting vintage guitars. He says he has over 120. I was telling him about a friend who passed that had a 1960 Les Paul. He wanted to hear more about it as his wife was trying to sell it. They owned a music store. Unfortunately, by the time I returned home to inquire about Brad wanting to buy it, she had already sold it. Brad did give me his phone number, so I could alert him if any other vintage guitars were for sale in the area. I’ve called him a couple of times to give him a heads up. However the last time I tried to call him about a near mint, customer color Fender Jaguar from the 1960’s, his number had changed. Now if I come across something, I put it in my son’s ear, to put it in Kelly’s.
Kelly’s a great guy too. I had a rare 7 wishes tab book from 1985, and my son gave it to Kelly to get the autographs of all the original members, including Flitz and Jeff, on it. Well, Kelly had the book for a long time. I figured it probably got lost. Then a year later, when my son was on leave from the Army, he shows up and hands me the book, with all five signatures.
It’s hard watching your heroes get old. Fitz is in his 80’s, Kelly is in his 70’s now, and Brad is creeping up to 70 soon. Brad and the boys are still touring. My son just saw them about three weeks ago. I know that Jack doesn’t need to tour. He has all that Damn Yankees dough. Their “last tour” supposedly ended last year, but there are shows scheduled for 2025. Maybe they just extended it a bit.
Brad gave a solid chunk of advice to share with all you musician types….”Keep your publishing.”
And here now for your viewing pleasure is the video of Night Ranger’s Seven Wishes Tour, from 1985.
If you have any questions about anything about my night hanging out with NR, go ahead and ask. There is a lot I haven’t covered. I will try to answer in the comments down below.
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